Thursday, June 11, 2009

NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencils

I usually am drawn to products that are recommended (as most people are). One night I was at my friend's house and she pulled a whole drawer out of her vanity to show me her new NYX haul. She had purchased 40 things from cherry culture dot com. 40! I was stunned because first of all, I didn't know what NYX was and thought it was some sort of expensive brand. I was under the impression that she had spent over a thousand dollars on this stuff. Secondly, she is such a MAC/NARS addict that a full drawer in her vanity dedicated to this NYX stuff meant a lot. She started digging through it, displaying her wide variety of glosses, lip pencils, eyeshadows, blushes, and more. Then she brought out the NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencils. In all honest truth, they look a little cheap. I mean, if you compare them to MAC Shadesticks, the packaging is a little pathetic. Then she started swatching them and I realized how beautiful they were and said, "I HAVE TO HAVE THEM! HOW MUCH DO THEY COST???" She said smugly, "3 dollars and 50 cents". My jaw dropped. No wonder the packaging looked cheap.

So, of course, I went home and ordered them. I ordered milk, gold, lemon, strawberry milk, black bean, pot and pans, and a couple others (I didn't name ones that didnt really stand out to me...). When I got the box, I was so excited! I ripped it open and tossed all of the pencils onto my bed, then organized them in a rainbow sort of formation because that's just how I like to organize stuff. Before reviewing colors, let me just say that these things crease like mad if you use them as bases. CREASE LIKE MAD!! I swatched them all on my arm and here's what I have to say:

Milk: It's a stark white. White. White. White. It'd be nice to put under eyeshadows in order to really make eyeshadow colors pop. The consistency is noticeably more chalky than the other ones and (I've been asked this a lot) YOU CANNOT USE IT AS A HIGHLIGHTER. It is seriously just bright white and that won't look good up on your browbone.

Gold: Gold's a very pretty color. I love gold/brown/bronze eyes so this color was right up my alley. I put painterly paint pot on and put this on top of it makes a great start for a gorgeous eye. It's smooth and shimmery.

Lemon: I don't know what genius thought to call this color lemon. If I was naming this color after a fruit, I'd say lime. It's a green color and it more....like....translucent than the other colors. I really like it though. I have green eyes with a hint of brown and Lemon really makes that green POP!!

Strawberry Milk: This is the perfect baby pink. It's creamy, opaque, and is a good base color for a girly pink eye.

Black Bean: This is the perfect name for this color. Black. Just as Milk is white, Black Bean is black. A good base color for a DARK and dramatic smokey eye.

Pots and Pans: Pots and Pans is silver and shimmery. It's hard to find a nice shimmery silver and this really gets the job done.

The application process can be simple or difficult. Since I like to take the easy route, I simply gather some of this creamy product onto my finger and dab it onto my eye (over a base! Remember, these are creasy on their own!). A little goes a long way and these are very vibrant.

People often want to know if these can be depotted. Yes they can using a heating process, but the pencil form is actually really cute and workable. I'm sticking with the pencil and not hassling with all that depotting.